There are no crimes involved, unless there was sex with a male under 21, or indecent assault, but no police complaint has been made so far as we know, and the age of consent has been equalised since then and so charges would not now be made on that score.

We should start a petition or something demanding an inquiry into the inner workings of the Catholic church here in Britain!

We don’t balk at yanking in Rupert Murdoch although his headquarters, like the Catholic Church’s headquarters, is not on British soil.

We don’t balk at sending in social workers to investigate families where we just suspect people are in danger of abuse.

So let us not balk at hauling in the upper echelon of “RC Church PLC” and really quizzing them on their practices, demanding they show us their manuals, their written procedures for dealing with complaints. Let us quiz them as to what procedures they have in place to enable any trainee priest or nun to report WITHOUT FEAR any abbot, father superior, or abbess, bishop, or what-have-you with wandering hands!

If we demand justice re. Jimmy Savile, and Lord Rennard, then we MUST demand justice re. the organization that is the Catholic Church. It’s only an organization.

I can highly recommend the Jeremy Vine programme today [04/March/2013] conducted by Vanessa Phelps enquiring as to why closeted gays are often so viciously homophobic and use positions of power to make the lives of other gays pure hell.. Really excellent stuff.

SteveC, if you don’t know already, google and read up on how John Magee, private secretary to THREE popes, used to cuddle up to seminarians in both Rome and Ireland. His technique was to get close to young men who came to him for confession. That’s when they’re vulnerable of course, full of guilt for their sins. “Come here, Joseph. Let me hold you, my child . . . Do you like this, Joseph? . . . Do you feel protected in my arms? If I stroke you like this, it feels good, doesn’t it? . . . ” Next thing you know, it’s sex! That’s how it happens. I know. I’ve had it thrust at me that way myself.
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Steve, in my view seduction in the confessional equates to coercion, even if those being coerced are of the age of consent.

Agree with you for the need for an enquiry.

I know it won’t happen, but as the Pope operates his business on British soil, and as that business has been found to involve the sexual abuse of children and the sexual harassment of trainee priests, then surely the government should call a public inquiry and require the next pope to attend to give evidence!

Why shouldn’t he come? He’s not immune! Why should he be? We need to demand that he and his cardinal flunkies be called to account.

Actually Eddy, the pope is immune to prosecution. Technically, the pope is a monarch, a head of Vatican state and has diplomatic immunity. Isn’t it ironic that after the last pope’s visit to Scotland, the leading Catholic cleric in Scotland ends up disgraced. Ratzinger always said it’s hard to expect miracles coming out of the UK. Maybe that’s the miracle after all, exposing the bigotry and hypocrisy for all to see. It’s a huge blow and damaging to the Vatican’s credibility. I expect more will follow from this.

Cardinal O’Brien’s belated and vague fessing up
Reads like a spin doctor’s dressing up
Until the mea culpa has a maxima added
Any apology is going to sound vapid
So come clean, beat your breast and quit messing up.

Saints and sinners my arse. How glib Nichols’ response is to this debacle. Obviously he doesn’t see the seriousness of it and the implications for his church. Sounds as if they’re all in denial. Sweep it under the carpet and move on. We should keep this on the front burner, hold them accountable for the damange and harm they’ve done gay people and people in their care.

Every time they rail against equal marriage, we should remind them that they have no moral authority to pronounce judgement on anyone or anything.

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, a former Archbishop of Westminster, told the BBC that the Catholic Church had not lost its moral authority, but that it was “composed of saints and sinners”.

That’s bulls**t Cardinal! The Roman Church has always taken the moral high ground, especially on social issues. The Church has blood on it’s hands. It has caused suicides and despair in Catholic LGBT youths. It has used all it’s power to break-up and prevent LGBT families from being legally recognized and accepted.

It has lied and covered up sexual crimes by it’s clergy against minors. This Church has NO MORAL AUTHORITY! It’s so much easier to sniff out and bring to light any morally questionable skeletons this Church might have in that massive dark closet!

The RC Church is a morally bankrupt, deceptive & power-hungry institution made up of a hierarchy of tortured old men living unnatural celibate lives.

Can you stop repeating this thing about “British” representation in the conclave. All these people represent the Vatican. No representatives of any other state will be involved.

As they have for centuries, these people believe in the supremacy of the Papacy and, just like the Muslim Brotherhood, consider it their right and duty to try to shape the laws of each and every country after their dogma. Just as they have been trying to recently with Equal Marriage.

They will conclude that a) the Cardinal was a Good Man who had very, very occasionally been led into temptation, poor thing. b) That the men he made the moves on sorta kinda share the blame and c) that O’Brien’s muttered confession, mealy-mouthed apology and overseas runner should draw a veil over it.

Saints and sinners ? More like just sinners. Cut the crap of weakness and a few bad apples already, everyone already knows the whole Catholic Church does evil without shame, hesitation or doubt, knowing exactly what it’s doing and why it’s doing and with total certainty of its impunity. It’s not the case of weakness of some individuals when the Catholic Church covers up the systematic sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests in many countries around the world. They are nothing more than a global crime family, worst than the Camorra or the Cosa Nostra.

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